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(No Model.)

J. W. GADWELL. CLOTHES LINE.

No; 483,299; Patented Sept. 27,1892.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JONATHAN lV. CADXVELL, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT.

CLOTH ES-Ll N E.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 483,299, dated September 27, 1892.

Application filed August 7, 1391- Serial No. 401,988. .(No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JONATHAN W. CA1)- WELL, of Meriden, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Clothes- Lines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to an improvement in clothes-lines which are rigged to extend from a window to an outer support, and has for its object to provide a simple device which will permit the washed clothes to be secured on an auxiliary line within the house and afford convenient means for the attachment of said auxiliary line, preferably, to a main endless clothes-line which is stretched upon supports from a window outwardly and the transference of the attached line and clothes thereon to the outer air in a safe manner.

To this end my invention consists in the construction and combination of parts, as hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures. Figurel is a side'view of the improvement in connection with an endless line supported from stable uprights. Fig. 2 is an enlarged edge view of a line-clamp that is one feature of the improvement. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the line-clamp. Fig. 4 is an enlarged side view of a snap-hook preferably used in connection with the auxiliary clothes-line to secure it to a main endless line. Fig. 5 is an enlarged side view of a hook employed to support an auxiliary clothes-line from a main clothes-line, which lines are shown in crosssection; and Fig. 6 is a view of a modified form of the supporting-hook shown in Fig. 5 and clothes-lines engaged therewith.

The continuous main line A is located upon the pulleys a a, which are supported from two fixed uprights, which may be a wall 13 and pole 0, (shown broken in Fig. 1,),the line being doubled, and thus adapted for longitudinal movement on the pulleys when drawn upon from the window D. (Also shown broken in the figure named.) This portion of the device is of well-known construction and is in common use to suspend washed clothing in areas between high tene1nents.

There is an auxiliary clothes-line E pro vided, which is proportioned inlength so as to nearly reach from one supporting-pulley a to the other pulley a. On one end of the auxiliary line E a snap-hook F is fastened, which book is made to engage the lower strand of the doubled main line A and have contact with a knot 1), formed in said line to join its ends. The other end of the auxiliary line E is attached, as at b, to the lever c of a rope clamp G, preferably used to effect ajunction of this terminal of the line E with the lower strand of the doubled line A. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the rope-clamp G consists of a light flat plate (I, having a rope-guard ledge 6 turned up at one side and an integral clamping-flange h bent into seinicylindrical form along one end of the plate cl at a right angle to the edge 71 thereof. Upon the fiat surface of the plate (1 the clamping-lever o is pivoted at a proper point between its ends so that the terminal 0 of said lever that is nearest to the flange h will be in such a position as will adapt it to clamp a rope or clothes-line between the semicylindric flange named and the curved face of the lever end 0 when the outer end 0 is vibrated toward the edge e of the plated, the inner sloping end e of the ledge e holding a clamped rope or line in place at that side of the clamp. A proper number of spring-wire hooks I are provided, which are bent to aftord a closed eye m at one end of each hook, which eyes engage the auxiliary line loosely.

When the device is to be put into service, the washed articles, which are to be hung in the air to dry, are attached by clothes-pins upon the auxiliary line E within the apartment and all deposited in a portable receptacle, such as a clothes-basket. Then, they are moved adjacent to the window firom which they are to be passed out into the air. The end of the auxiliary line E, having the snaphook F attached to it, is now connected with the lower strand of the main clothes-line A by snapping it over said strand in advance of the knot b thereon, which knot should be near to the window D at this stage ofithe operation. By applying draft force to the up per strand of the fnain line A from the window D the knot b and the snap-hook F will be moved outward toward the pulley a. \Vhen a proper length of the auxiliary line E has been passed outward, one of the hooks I on it is made to engage with the lower strand of 'the main clothes-line A, which will prevent toogreat a sagging of the auxiliary line. Preferably there are open hooks J placed at proper-intervals along on the two lines A E, which serve to transfer weight from the lower strand and auxiliary line to the upper strand of the main 'line A. After the auxiliary clothes-line E, full of clothes n, has been drawn outwardly and properly connected to a the upper line A by the-hooks I J, as stated,

the line E is stretched and connected by the clamp G to the lowerstrand of the main line A, as indicated in Fig. 1. The line E is attached to the end 0 of the lever 0, whereby the weight of the clothes on the line E will re tain the cam-jaw c of said lever in locked adjustment on thelower strand of the main line A/untilthe clothes are to be removed.

It will beseen that by the peculiar construction and arrangement of parts the washed goods may be all connected removably with the auxiliary line E within the house, of which D is a window, and then be safely and quickly transferred to the open air and when dried may be again drawn within the apart ment, by a reversal of the previously-described operation. The supplementary 11 ne E, being removed from its connection wlth the main line A, can be wrapped up and kept clean and dry for subsequent use.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as newand desire to secure by Letters Patent- The combination; with a main endless clothes-line supported on two pulleys with its strands in one vertical plane, an auxiliary line attached ,removably to the lower strand of the main clothes-line by a snap-hook that engages a projection on this strand near one pulley, and a rope-clamp havinga cam lever, to the projecting end of which lever the other end of the auxiliary line is attached to hold said'line extended by the weight imposed on it, of intermediate hooks that connect theauxiliary line with the main line at intervals, substantially as described.

JONATHAN W. OADWELL. 

